Rethinking What Fat Means To Us

April 3, 2014

“I had to realize that eating _______ wouldn’t make me gain weight over night!”

It’s a super common phrase heard from people in recovery from eating disorders or disordered eating. They use it to over come fear foods and learn to relax their rigid meal plans. It’s important, most definitely.

But here’s my beef with that phase: What if eating something DID make you gain weight?

Obviously not over night, but I bet if you go from eating only vegetables and grilled chicken to including fun foods like regular pasta, cheese and desserts you could gain a little weight.

And what then?

Instead of only learning that certain foods won’t make us “fat”, we need to rethink what “fat” means to us.

We need to take it one step further.

SO WHAT if you gain some weight? Does it make you a worse person? Less valuable? Less talented?

No, it likely makes you healthier, more spontaneous, and a lot more fun.

So while it’s essential to ditch the fear foods and learn that there is a place for ALL foods in a balanced diet, the recovery thinking needs to go a little deeper for it to be lasting and effective.

It’s about rethinking why we are recovering in the first place, getting to the root of the problem, and adapting a healthier body image.

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